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You Have 30 Seconds Or Less!

The average reading time for a business plan is 30 seconds and is getting shorter. If your plan or presentation does not capture the imagination in that time frame, you are wasting your time. In the same goes for the executive summary.

It is the first part of a Business Plan to be read – and the last to be written. Here, in less than a page, you summarise the key points of your plan. It should:

Describes your unique offering and why it is exciting

Describes the market and the clients you have secured (make sure you name drop)

Show how you will and have reached the market (routes to market)

Explains your business model

Includes the results so far and your projections

Includes the ask (money, advise)

Explain how your company came to be

This is the most important part of the business plan, since it’s usually on this that a decision is taken to read further. Most business plans are rejected before the Executive Summary has been fully read. So make sure it makes the reader sit up, make it real, make it enjoyable and make them beg for your business.

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The idea for Small Business Can comes from an Ulster Bank initiative when we went and talked to hundreds of businesspeople and asked them about the types of business supports they most valued.

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About Small Business Can

The idea for Small Business Can comes from an Ulster Bank initiative when we went and talked to hundreds of businesspeople and asked them about the types of business supports they most valued. The majority said that they valued the insights of other businesspeople the most. We came up with smallbusinesscan.com, a site run by businesspeople for businesspeople. Read more...